Anytime I go to my pilates class I come back late and starving, so I need to fix us a dinner super quickly, and doesn’t require to much attendance to have time to do all I have to in the mean time. Psta are great for that: once they’re in the boiling water you are free for 10min. And before the water was boiling it gives enough time to prepare the veggies for the side. Recently I found that spinach and shiitake go very well along and I like to serve them with pasta, eggs… The spinach are simply boiled or steamed, the shiitake grilled with a bit of oil (here served with pasta so olive oil). Then I just serve, add olive oil, pepper and ready to eat!!!!!
This morning the farmers market showed me once again that it is not clear which season we’re in!!! The transition seems to take an unusually long time and daikon and cabbages were lined together with strawberries and new wasabi leaves. It gave me the idea to prepare us a warm/cold salad with warm green lentils from France and thick fried tofu, fresh tomatoes and wasabi leaves, with an olive oil and soya sauce dressing and finished with a few sesame seeds!
There is nothing as such as a good breakfast, prepared just in time and served just when it’s done. In particular, I can’t help but love bread that is just out from the oven, with a good cup of a hot drink and a fresh fruit (from the garden any time it’s possible). It makes the perfect start. Of course baking requires a bit of organization and time but in the end it’s not so difficult and incomparable with anything else you can buy the day before!
As you may have noticed I bske pretty much anything. Even if I am not master in making croissants yet and naad to work on that, I start to be pretty confident on making rye and whole wheat breads. So here is an other variation of the basic recipe, where I mixed 250g of flour: half rye and half whole wheat flours, 120g of water, 14g of sourdough, 3g of yeast, 6g of salt, knead until soft and smooth, then added dry raisins and chocolate chips in part of the dough only. Waited until it has almost doubled, then shaped it and leave all night in a cool place. Before going to bed I scedule a delayed start of the oven so that In the morning I just have to bake them for 10-12min and breakfast is ready!!! Have a nice weekend!
It is extremely rare I cook something sweet for dessert, or I cook dessert at all. Unless we have guests for dinner our meals end sometimes with a fruit, sometimes a yogurt but most often with just a little piece of chocolate. In the trading with our neighbor, fruits from our garden in exchange whatever she has, the other day she gave some plum jam and she told me: “you know, it’s sour, but it’s really good in plum jelly!”. OK then, let’s make some plum jelly (梅羊羹-ume youkan)… Well it’s really simple and it works also with any jam you like (I trued also with my natsumikan jam). You need only a flat recipient, some jam, 1/2L of water and a little bag of agar-agar or 寒天-kanten. Boil the water in a pan, add the jam, then the kanten, stir well while still heating for a few minutes. Set in the flat recipient and wait for the liquid to cool down, then refregirate. Before serving cut in pieces of the shape you fancy.
Warm days with sometimes cold wind and chilly evenings follow each other, the end of the winter veggies overlaps with the beginning of spring veggies so my cooking is largely influenced by the envy of spring food, but the warmth of winter food. So I came up with new vegan risotto recipe with winter red cabbage and spring new onions. The new onions are just starting and are perfect just slightly rolled in olive oil and heated slowly. For the risotto a veggies consomme add the perfect juice and taste. Then just add the onions cooked and the red cabbage and cook 2 minutes under cover before serving while still hot, and add some freshly grated Parmegiano for those who like.
I really love cereals and grains but I don’t cook some often enough because usually their cooking is too long for my short cooking time and it’s often difficult for me to plan long ahead. So when I have time to, I can try some new ideas and recipes. Inspired by a picture in one of my cookbooks I wanted to test some vegan croquettes and to do it with quinoa and millet. For the veggies I used in season veggies: carrots and topinamburs. And because the bonito is still in season I seeved it with grilled bonito that was simply rolledin curry powder before, and a few radishes for the color and freshness.
So for the croquettes here’s what I did: first I boiled some millet, then some quinoa. I mixed both. I then boiled topinamburs chopped thinly, and I also chopped thinly a few little carrots (that I didn’t boil). I put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. Their shouldn’t be too much moisture in the mixture. If it’s the case add some flour I used rice flour). Add salt and pepper. In a greased and heated frypan make little balls of the mixture and flatten then to obtain little galettes. Cook until golden. Can be eaten with just a salad too, or dip in a curry-yogurt dressing…
I love kaiseki cuisine (懐石料理) and in particular cha-kaiseki (茶懐石). I’ve learned it for a year and it helped me a lot understand Japanese cuisine and cooking, it also helped me to train my palate. But what I really troubles with kaiseki because it includes quite a lot of raw fish, shellfish, fish eggs etc… And so it is when you go to kaiseki restautants. In particular it is always a fixed seasonal menu, and it kind of doesn’t really make sense to go to a high end kaiseki restaurant and pass on the half of the courses, or ask for a special menu. But hopefully there is Shojin cuisine! You may think of Shojin cuisine as the rustic vegetarian they serve at Mount Koya, but actually there are several places where it is treated as kaiseki and this is just awesome. I know I can eat everything without worrying and it shows the potential of vegetarian or vegan cooking to be super high cuisine. Shojin cuisine is related to Zen Budhism and is meat-fish free, while being very ingenious in using gluten, soya beans etc.., it is also a seasonal food, so somehow the precursor of Japanese macrobiotic eating in its original meaning. I’ve planning to learn Shojin cuisine for a few years but my lab kept me to busy. I’m hoping that I can start this spring.
Example of seasonal dish served at Daigo (from Daigo wesite)Our dessert last night and the view to the garden
In the meantime while we were looking for a place to celebrate our anniversary I suggested we could try a kaiseki Shojin cuisine restaurant that I randomly found while looking for vegan places in Tokyo. So we booked at Daigo (http://www.atago-daigo.jp), near Atago shrine in Tokyo. The place has something a bit magical, since it is a little Japanese heaven in a high rise with the service expected from any high standard ryotei. The food was amazing as expected (and as usual I won’t show you badly taken pictures of this deliciously and beautifully designed food, you’d rather try yourself) and once back home we realized it is actually a 2-star Michelin restaurant. I can only but recommend the experience when visiting Tokyo!
The most impressive dish from our menu is hard to choose but I was impressed by the bamboo shoots with kinome dressing (or for the fashionable word “pesto”), which take both ingredient to perfection. Something I will definitely try my way very soon!!!
Individual dining room at Daigo (from Daigo website)
One day warm, one day cold, it’s hard to know which season we are, already spring or still winter? So for the food it’s the same, I crave for new veggies one day, the other I dream of hot soup and hot veggies pot. To solve this problem I prepared a salad with hot boiled potatoes and thick fried tofu, and finely chopped raw red cabbage, radishes, mini tomatoes, ice plant and walnuts, with just olive oil. A perfect winter & spring option!
Because sometime all you want is plain sautéed fresh veggies, and it’s so simple and so delicious that you wonder why it’s not what is on the menu everyday!!!!
